Talen Plans 23-Building Data Center Campus on Former Amazon-Earmarked Site in Pennsylvania

Energy firm Talen is moving forward with plans to develop a large-scale data center campus in eastern Pennsylvania, targeting a site previously under consideration by Amazon. The project, led by a partnership between Talen Energy and the River Pointe Logistics team under the entity Slate Belt Holdings LLC, aims to transform 754 acres of land in Upper Mount Bethel Township, Northampton County, into a major data center hub.

According to documents filed with the township, the campus could accommodate up to 23 buildings, each offering 201,500 square feet, along with a 480MW on-site substation. Slate Belt Holdings acquired the land from River Pointe earlier this year. The site sits near the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border, roughly 30 miles northeast of Allentown, and is close to Talen’s existing Lower Mount Bethel power plant, a 607MW natural gas facility that began operations in 2004.

River Pointe originally purchased the land in 2019 and had been seeking to attract commercial or industrial development. The company previously stated the site could support up to 15 buildings and six million square feet of development, with proximity to a 168MW substation. However, Talen’s revised proposal significantly expands the scale, reflecting growing demand for data center capacity in the region.

The development faces local regulatory hurdles. Slate Belt Holdings is currently challenging Upper Mount Bethel Township’s zoning ordinances, which the partnership claims unlawfully exclude data center uses. The legal action underscores broader tensions in Pennsylvania between data center developers and local municipalities over land use and power availability.

Amazon had reportedly shown interest in developing the same area, including discussions about a potential campus at River Pointe and the nearby former Portland Generating Station site. The cloud giant ultimately dropped its plans due to uncertainties around power availability, according to local reports.

Talen has been expanding its data center footprint since 2021. Through its subsidiary Cumulus Data, the company broke ground on a hyperscale facility and a separate cryptomine site adjacent to its Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear plant in Pennsylvania in 2023. Amazon acquired those data centers from Talen in 2024. Talen is also pursuing a gigawatt-scale campus at the Susquehanna site, though a recent request to rezone land for data center use in Montour County was denied by local officials.

The proposed 23-building campus in Upper Mount Bethel represents one of the largest data center projects in the region, highlighting the intensifying race among energy firms and developers to secure sites with adequate power infrastructure. The outcome of the zoning challenge will be closely watched as it could set a precedent for future data center development in Pennsylvania.